Mass production of 90 nm fine processing devices by 193 nm lithography technique has already begun. From now on, finer, higher density and higher integration devices, such as 65 nm, 45 nm and 32 nm, are requested. The process toward the fine processing and material development are in a rapid progress. As problems toward making them finer of a resolution of 65 nm or less, etching resistance of resist, line edge roughness (LER), in which edge of pattern becomes wavy, and the like are given. To solve this task, the development is conducted actively. To improve etching resistance, there is a report example that improvement is achieved by introducing many cyclic structures into a resin. Furthermore, there are many research examples reported on the generation mechanism of LER. Its clear cause, however, has not yet been discovered. Variation of solubility relative to the developing solution and low etching resistance are assumed to be the causes.
As one example of resist resins used in 193 nm lithography, (meth)acrylic ester series resins are used. There, report examples have been presented, in which compounds having a polycyclic structure, such as adamantyl group, norbornel group or a cholesterol derivative, at an ester moiety, have been introduced in order to improve etching resistance. However, if many of such polycyclic structure are introduced into the resin to improve etching resistance, there occurs lowering of other properties necessary for resist materials, such as solvent solubility, adhesion to substrate, transmittance relative to excimer laser in vacuum ultraviolet region, and the like. Furthermore, even if many of the polycyclic structure have been introduced, etching resistance is inferior as compared with hydroxy-styrene series resins used in 254 nm lithography. Therefore, a further improvement of etching resistance is requested. On the other hand, there are examinations on resins having a cyclic structure at the polymer main chain, as an approach that is different from (meth)acrylic ester series resins. Although there are examples in which it has been tried to improve etching resistance by containing cyclopentane ring or cyclohexane ring in polymer main chains, the improvement of etching resistance has not been achieved in the case of trying to have a balance with other properties such as solvent solubility, transmittance, and contrast of resolution.
As mentioned above, there has been a demand for the production of a novel material having a sufficient etching resistance as resist material and other necessary properties such as transmittance, adhesion and solvent solubility.    Non-patent Publication 1: Takuya Hagiwara, Yasuhide Kawaguchi, et al, J. Photopolym. Sci. Technol., 16, 557 (2003)    Non-patent Publication 2: Francis Houlihan, Will Conley, Larry Rhodes, et al, J. Photopolym. Sci. Technol., 16, 581 (2003)    Non-patent Publication 3: Shinichi Kanna, Sanjay Malik, et al, J. Photopolym. Sci. Technol., 16, 595 (2003)    Non-patent Publication 4: Takashi Sasaki, Shigeo Irie, Toshiro Itani, et al, J. Photopolym. Sci. Technol., 17, 639 (2004)